Breaking Down The Disney & Sony Physical Media Deal

hey everyone it's Jeff and today we've

got to talk about this Disney and Sony

physical media distribution deal so I

know I've got a black eye nothing bad

got a little banged up in a men's league

basketball game but I told my wife once

I start putting makeup on for a video

that's when I know I've gone too far got

to keep it authentic and I need to talk

about this news so if you're a physical

media and home entertainment fan you

probably saw this news unless you've

literally been sleeping under a rock it

was everywhere first reported by the

digital bits and now it's hit variety

it's hit deadline it's hit Hollywood

Reporter it's all over the place but

essentially Disney and Sony have come

together on a deal which is going to

allow Sony to take over Disney's

physical media business Sony is going to

be doing all the production work the

distribution and all of the retail

merchandising and marketing to get

Disney Blu-ray DVD and 4K releases out

the door now this is also supposed to

start with the movie the first Omen

which is coming out in theaters in April

of 2024 it's a fox movie 20th century

studio so it'll come out on physical you

know couple months later that'll be the

first title that this applies to so

about halfway through 2024 that's when

this change will fully go into place so

I heard Rumblings about this for a while

um I didn't want to say anything about

it because I couldn't confirm it yet um

there were potentially people's jobs at

stake and I just didn't have enough

information that I felt comfortable like

saying anything about it um I definitely

don't have as many sources as like Bill

hunt does at the digital bits and he

obviously confirmed it with many more

people and broke that news and obviously

um you know based now on responses from

Disney yeah it's obviously 100% true and

this this is really happening these

aren't rumors this is confirmed stuff

and what I want to do in this video talk

about it a little bit is this a good

deal a bad deal do we like this um but I

also want to clear some stuff up because

a lot of people online I saw it on

Reddit I saw it in my own YouTube

comments I saw it on forums all over the

internet people are running with this

deal as if it's some real groundbreaking

you know open the floodgates moment and

it's not quite that so we need to talk

about that clear some stuff up so to

start do I think this is a good deal bad

deal what's going on personally I think

it's a good thing I think Disney was um

struggling to find profitability they

were struggling to um you know get their

processes down their workflows down they

had unfortunately uh a lot of people

have been let go from the physical media

teams after the fox merger and then you

know the focus on Disney plus and so I

think it had become really hard to do

this work completely in internally and

Sony as you've probably seen has done

incredible work um with their own

Blu-ray 4K production tons of catalog

titles uh even really you know kind of

obscure weird stuff you wouldn't expect

to see come to 4K is is coming out and

they found a way to do this with with

profit in mind and they've been able to

nail the process and you know I think

that's all of what Disney was looking

for and a partner here and so I

ultimately think it it's good in that

aspect in the same way that like the

studio distribution services deal which

combined Warner Brothers and Universal

and kind of made this joint venture that

allowed them to again share distribution

costs share marketing costs share

production costs like this consolidation

of the physical media world is nothing

new SDS and Universal and Warner have

been doing this for years successfully

um and I think it makes total sense

because as the market shrinks does it

make sense for everybody body to have an

in-house physical media team Maybe not

maybe it's not as profitable you know

it's it's it's hard to make a profit on

this stuff so I think it makes perfect

business sense and I am optimistic that

because of that if Disney can start to

see oh you know there is profit here

there is profitability especially when

we're not you know really hurting

ourselves internally and trying to

figure out processes and you know delays

and struggles with getting discs out or

whatever they may have been going going

through that was costing them a lot if

Sony can clear that up then there is

potentially the appetite for people at

Disney to say okay let's do more of this

and they have been you've seen Disney

Plus shows obviously we've seen the

James Cameron stuff I'm looking for them

to hopefully get more into that fox

catalog the 20th century catalog the

Touchstone catalog there's a lot of

untapped potential there now speaking of

that catalog and and tapping into it and

what's going on here the sort of instant

sentiment online was physical media is

saved Sony releases so many catalog

titles they're working with Disney the

floodgates are open we're going to get

everything from Fox and Touchstone and I

can't wait for this to come to 4K and

this is going to get a Blu-ray that's

not the reality okay so what this deal

is it's production distribution

merchandising marketing of physical

media and Retail environments that's it

there's this is not Sony getting access

to Disney's catalog this is not Sony

taking over uh Disney's physical media

business in terms of decision making um

this is Disney saying hey Sony we want

to do this go do it and do the marketing

and distribution for us but those

decisions are still being made by Disney

they still have to make sense they still

have to make profit or they're not going

to do it so so Sony literally has no

real say in what titles are coming out

um what Disney is doing with their

catalog and their Fox and Touchstone

stuff they have no say in any of that

now what they may have is some influence

now to say Hey you know we saw this over

at Sony you might want to think about

this title give them recommendations

help them get this workflow down so that

it is more profitable so you will see

more of this stuff but they don't have

any control over the catalog so although

there are many 4K Masters sitting there

at Fox Sony can't just go and say hey

hey give us that and that and that and

that Disney still has to give that to

them so in the grand scheme of things

yes it's good I think it's probably a

positive thing I think it hopefully

fingers crossed means we do get some

more discs and it also means that

there's not going to be a cease of

production of physical media at least in

the United States and Canada which is

where this deal applies like we saw

Disney do in Australia now unfortunately

for those of you in Australia like I

just said this deal is US and Canada

only so there was some hope because Sony

has pretty decent Australian

distribution that you know the the

Aussies out there and my friends in

Australia would would be able to get

some more Disney titles they haven't had

a release since Guardians of the Galaxy

volume 3 as of right now that's not the

case but again

if Sony can pull some influence here you

never know what could change but right

now it's US and

Canada this does guarantee that Disney

is in the physical media game though

hopefully for the Long Haul at least for

their new release stuff so I hope it

helps I hope Disney can find more profit

maybe find some joy in doing physical

media again I imagine as a business when

it's losing money and it's just not as

profitable anymore more yeah it cannot

be fun to do that anymore if you're

losing money that's not fun for anybody

people's jobs are at stake so I hope

that they can work all this out I hope

Sony helps them I hope Sony influences

them and it would also be great to see

them you know potentially just license

content out as well if this is

successful maybe to Sony maybe to a

Criterion shout Studios Arrow you know

who whoever it may be Kino lber like

it'd be great to see them maybe do some

of that work and realize that licensing

isn't so bad licensing really all you

got to do is just say hey you know what

yeah we'll sell you the rights to that

movie it's x amount of dollars sign on

the line Disney takes the cash the other

Boutique label they go and do all the

work that would be great it seems like

free money but we have to see like these

things have to play themselves out so I

think it's just a natural Next Step

you're going to see more consolidation

probably of these companies uh the

streaming services will probably

consolidate physical media is now

consolidating everybody got stretched a

little too thin trying to do their own

thing and have this Monopoly on their

own entertainment and the reality is

that's never been the way that it's

really worked there's always been kind

of shared uh work between Studios and

and agreements together to work to get

things out theatrically and on home

video and now it's kind of coming back

around to that with streaming and 4K and

Blu-ray um you know and I I wouldn't be

surprised too if this type of thing

starts to extend out to some of those

Boutique labels as you know they're

hopefully um you know they've got their

workflows down and and they're finding

profitability I hope but you never know

um and this is totally you know

speculation but could a you know shout

Studios and arrow video merge at some

point could Criterion pick up you know

some sub label somewhere um you know

vinegar syndrome has all of their

partner labels and they're helping them

with merchandising and marketing and

they've allowed all these great smaller

labels to put stuff out on physical

media like all of that just seems to

make sense get the experts to do the

thing they're good at and let the other

people handle the content and make the

decisions and uh make this more

profitable for everybody because if it

is then that means we get more of it I

hate to only talk about profits but it's

a business if they're not making money

then they're not going to sell the

product so they need to make it

profitable they need to figure out their

workflows and their manufacturing and

their distribution and if they figure

that all out and get it nice and

streamlined then we have a much higher

chance of getting more stuff in the

future those are my thoughts hopefully

you weren't too distracted by the Shiner

um but hopefully this clears some stuff

up gives you some answers um there is

not much out there from Disney or Sony

just kind of a generic statement from

Disney um but you know we'll we'll see

how this all plays out I think this is

something you have to keep an eye on for

6 months 12 months 18 months I don't

think we're going to know how this truly

changes things for probably at least a

year so stay tuned I'll keep you guys

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